In the fall of 2010, news broke of a new, animated adaptation of Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s 1943 novel The Little Prince. This adaptation was budgeted around $80 million and Mark Osborne, co-director of the first Kung-Fu Panda, was set to helm. Asides from the cast and the expected 2015 release window, nothing else has been heard about the film ever since. Which is probably why, when a slew of new updates about the film rolled out not too long ago, it all practically slipped under the radar!
Teaser Trailer
First, a 48-second Japanese teaser trailer was released for the film. As common with short teasers, there’s not much information or even actual footage from the film itself (the narration is in Japanese). We are shown an image of the titular prince lying on the moon next to a rose, followed by an image of what appears to be a The Mother and The Girl stargazing with a telescope. It’s hard to really pinpoint the animation style of the film based on the trailer, but it did look a bit like hand-drawn animation with an inkling of stop-motion. However, official reports state that the film will be made in 3D.
Teaser Poster
Next, Paramount Pictures France had released a teaser poster for the film a while back on its twitter account, which can be seen here:
Release Date
And finally, the release dates and distribution. Paramount Pictures France will release the film on October 7, 2015. Warner Bros. Japan (who gave us the teaser trailer) will release the film sometime in the winter of 2015. Entertainment One’s Canadian division will release the film in Canada during the 2016 Thanksgiving season. And finally, Paramount Vantage, who holds the US rights to the film, is planning to release it sometime during the last quarter of 2015.
Voice Cast
The film is written by Irena Brignull and features the voice talents of Marion Collitard (The Rose), Rachel McAdams (The Mother), James Franco (The Fox), Jeff Bridges (The Aviator), Benicio del Toro (The Snake), Ricky Gervais (The Conceited Man), Paul Giamatti (The Teacher), Albert Brooks (The Businessman), and Bud Cort as The King. Rounding out the cast is Mackenzie Foy as The Girl and Riley Osborne (who we can assume is Mark Osborne’s son) as the title character of The Little Prince.
